"i don't give up easily,
'specially when there's
a real pretty girl involved."
"cute, merridew.
that's real cute."
When the pilot's daughter crash-lands on a desert island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, all she wants to do is survive long eno...
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That night, we gathered around the fire on the mountain to put it out (in Ralph's words, "no one's going to see the smoke in the dark, and no one wants to stay up late"). I'd heard somewhere that throwing sand on fire usually puts it out, which was just fine with me-I didn't fancy making relay races to and from the ocean with an empty coconut shell.
"Wait, wait!" Percival, one of the littluns, cried. He was a small boy with mousy brown hair and a round little face. "Can we tell stories by the campfire before we go to sleep?"
"It's rather late, Percival," Piggy said primly. "I should think a young boy like you would be in bed right now."
"But we'll sleep better if we have a story!" Percival begged. "Please please please, Piggy? Just one story?"
"I don't have any stories," the bespectacled boy said, squatting down to scoop up some sand.
"Y/n? Can you tell us a story, then?" Percival asked, clasping his hands together and sticking out his lower lip. "Please?"
I hesitated, shooting a covert look at Piggy, then at Ralph. "Well..."
"Please? Please? Pleeeeeeaaaaaase?" the rest of the littluns pleaded. I shot a questioning look at Ralph, trying to see if he would approve or, like Piggy, think they needed to go to bed. Ralph smiled encouragingly in my direction, and my heart fluttered a little. He was really as nice as they come.
"Okay," I said.
"Yes!" Percival clapped his hands and jumped up and down.
"Percival, sit down!" A blond, fluffy-haired boy by the name of Bill grabbed Percival's arm and sat him down on the log next to him. While everyone sat down on the log benches, I racked my brains and tried to think of a good story to tell. I thought about some of the fairy stories my mother had read to me when I was little: Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Rapunzel, Cinderella...
"Go on!" Percival folded his hands in his lap. I cleared my throat.
"Uh, okay, uh..." I decided to make one up on the spot. "Once upon a time there was-"
"Wait, can you act it out?" one of the littluns asked. "Pretend like you're in a play or something?"
"Sure," I said. I cleared my throat and started again. "Once upon a time there was a, um...a princess. Um, she was smart and kind and loyal and wise and beautiful." Several pairs of eyes stared at me, waiting for something to happen. I racked my brain even harder, trying to make something interesting happen in the story. Introduce a conflict, perhaps.
"One day she was walking in the forest looking for some food because her kingdom was starving," I continued.
"Act it out!" another one of the littluns demanded.
